A uniqname is like a user ID or user name and is part of your email address. Uniqnames are made up of three to eight alphabetic characters (for example, bjensen). You can tell anyone your uniqname.

Your UMICH password proves you are who you say you are. NEVER tell anyone your UMICH password  not even your parents, best friend or computer support personnel. Doing so would put all of your personal information stored within the U-M computing environment at risk.

Uniqnames

If you are having trouble getting an OTID (One-Time Identifier) or using an OTID to create your uniqname, you can contact the ITS Service Center at (734) 764-HELP[764-4357] for assistance.

Incoming U-M students on the Ann Arbor campus, as well as new staff hired through the university's online job posting and hiring system, receive an OTID when they join the U-M community. They use their OTID, along with their U-M ID number (UMID), to create their own uniqname via a web page. The ITS Service Center can resolve problems that occur at any point in the OTID and uniqname creation process.

For your protection, the Service Center does not provide IDs, usernames or passwords by email. To obtain this information, please contact the ITS Service Center by phone.

You can request a uniqname change for reasons such as misspellings, legal name changes, marriage, divorce, harassment, or if your originally selected uniqname contains profanity. Your uniqname is used for access to multiple systems at U-M, so changing it can be time-consuming, particularly if you have administrative or elevated access to data or systems. Please consider carefully if you are contemplating a uniqname change and plan ahead to minimize disruption. See Changing Your Uniqname for details.

Password Security

We may ask you to change your password if it is identified as weak, but we will never ask you to send it to us.

No one at U-M should ever ask you your password for any reason. We ask you to use it when you log in to ITS and other U-M computing services, of course, but we will never ask you to tell or give it to us or to any other person. Your password is yours, and you need to keep it private.

Be suspicious of password requests—and all requests for identity information. People who send you email asking for your password are up to no good. They want your password so they can get access to your U-M computing account and, perhaps, to U-M computing services generally. Attempts to trick you into revealing your password or other private information are called "phishing" scams.

Many people forget their password at one time or another. If you forget your UMICH password and you set up security questions, you can reset your password on the UMICH Account Management page. If you didn't set up security questions, or can't remember the answers, you can ask the people at the ITS Service Center to reset your password for you. Call (734) 764-HELP [764-4357] to request a password reset.

For your protection, the Service Center does not provide IDs, usernames or passwords by email. To obtain this information, please contact the Service Center by phone.

Setting security questions and an external email address will allow you to reset your password if you forget it—no matter where you are. You will no longer have to call the ITS Service Center to reset your password.

Your Active Directory password gives you access to U-M services that use Active Directory for login. Your UMICH password is synchronized to Active Directory for you so you don't need to keep track of which systems use which login mechanism. You can use your uniqname and UMICH password to log in to most U-M online resources. If you have not changed your UMICH password since 2012, when password synchronization began, you may have an Active Directory password that is different from your UMICH password. If that is the case, we recommend that you change your UMICH password so it can be synchronized to Active Directory.